Dealing with a crazy customer

[prodrying]

We had a lady bring in a small rug to be cleaned at our rug cleaning plant. As we do with all rugs we photographed the rug right when it came in. All the photos are also date and time stamped. When she comes to pick up the rug she tries to tell me that we unraveled the sides of the rug in two places. I proceeded to pull out the photos and showed her that the rug was like that when she brought it in. The photos are date and time stamped and she is actually in one of the photos. She proceeded to pay, but the entire time she is telling me I am lying and that I doctored the photos, etc. She even leaves and then comes back to complain some more. All this for an inexpensive $100 rug.

I can only imagine the trouble I would have had without the photos.

So what's your best crazy customer story?

[SLOTOOLS]

I had an elderly lady whom upon my arrival wanted to make sure that I kept the door shut so the lizards would not enter her house (ok, I guess that is reasonable). So I opened the door wide enough for the hoses and used a wood block for a Lizard fence.
Well she stayed with me every inch of the carpet cleaning and ordered me to move this, and clean that, I replied "yes Ma'am" and followed her orders. "Dont get to close to the furniture, dont leave the carpet wet, dont dont dont..... "Ok Ma'am".

I finished and got paid, she said I was the best carpet cleaner she has ever used, and that was 6 years ago, I still clean ever year for her- I still bring the lizard fence although I never have seen a Lizard and she has gotten a little better...........

[jtmellon]

Well, one time I had this customer he was a real pain. Watched me the whole time. Then said he did want to pay me after the job cause he wasn't happy. Long story short.

I went out to my van to get my shovel. One smack on the head, called my buddy and it was the last time anyone every heard from this guy.

See in Jersey we do things a little different.

[prodrying]

Your story reminded me of another customer about 15 years ago. The lady called to have some carpet and upholstery cleaned. So I went and did an estimate and the whole time she kept saying please make sure this chair gets moved, please clean both sides of the cushions, please move this dresser and clean under it, etc. So we go to clean and the first chair I move has a penny under it. I don't think anything about it, but set the penny on the dresser. The more things I kept moving though, there was always a penny under it. So when I figured out that she had done this on purpose to make sure I moved what she wanted moved, I took a business card and put it everywhere there was a penny and put all the pennies in a pile for her. I didn't say anything to her about this. I left and got back to the shop and she calls thanking me for doing a great job and is laughing about the business cards. She is still a customer today, but she doesn't do the pennies anymore.

[jtmellon]

If she would have done that to me I would have left more then a business card under her chairs.

Maybe that's why I don't have a lot of business.

Funny thing is in my real business which is janitorial service, you get that with commercial office cleaning. You will find a paper clip in the weirdest place or a rubber band sometimes even money.

So what this does is rather then me spend time on cleaning and doing a good job, I go around looking for these things.

[Kevin K]

I have a friend who had something similar to the penny problem in a commercial office, but they would put dollar bills in inconspicuous places most likely to check for honesty. One night he got tired of it, and replaced the dollar bills with two rolls of pennies! The problem ended immediately

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OK Rick- I have to come clean- I put that last post up to bump my post count. Can't stand to see the "Junior Encapper" label...

[SLOTOOLS]

yes - junior encapper makes me feel very elementary somehow- next level wont be long now.....

[encapman]

Keep the posts coming Kevin. Once you get to 25 posts you'll be an ENCAP PRO.
Whining won't get you there any quicker.

http://forum.excellent-supply.com/thread-254.html

[David Edwards]

Since when is whining not beneficial??? That's very, very disappointing, Rick. I think maybe you expect too much of us "juniors."

[encapman]

It's the level of whining that differentiates the Junior Encappers from the Encap Pros.

[Kevin K]

Whining is all about the journey, not the destination.

That's my motivational quote for the day